A "Coptical" Illusion (Part II)
(C) Carrie Devorah
Please attribute quotes
National Press Club, NPC, event attendance varies
event to event.
Months earlier, no media attended a press conference
held by American women formerly married to Saudi National husbands,
despite some of the wives alleging their husbands were asked to
participate in the 911 attacks on the Pentagon and the
World
Trade
Center
. Then Wednesday the 17th, less than an hour before a press conference
called for by the US Copts Association took place, a handful of media in
the Zenger Room had crossed the hall from where Christian Broadcast
Network’s founder Pat Robertson dropped his bombshell statements- the
United Nations should be done away with and that Israeli Prime Minister
Sharon’s disengagement plan for Gaza threatens the security of Israel
and its citizens. Elevators heading to the top floor were filled with
media. There is something about the scent of blood that draws crowds and
journalists. Especially when the blood belongs to an immigrant family
discovered tethered, their necks sliced and bored like cows at slaughter.
The press conference started late. Media, responding
to the US Copts Association press release the Garas family from
New Jersey
wanted to speak to reporters, packed the room. The press conference was
little more than a month after Hossam, 47, Amal, 37, Sylvia, 15 and
Monica, 8, Armanious, of
Hudson County
,
New Jersey
’s
Jersey City
, were discovered. Sylvia’s 16th birthday.
The wait time for the Garas family was used by
attending NGO’s, non governmental organizations, to hand reporters the
organizations’ press releases. The room quieted when Garas’ single
filed in, men and woman, in black - Ayman, brother of Amal; Emad Fahmy,
brother-in-law of Amal; uncles Emil, Gameel, Alphonse and Milad, stood
behind the lectern. Amal’s mother
Ferail, worn from her flight, exhausted by the loss of her daughter and
granddaughters, sat to the side. Ferail speaks little English, “My
Monica,” she said. Tears flooded her eyes. Looking skywards, “Ave
maria.” Monica, 8, was bound, gagged alongside her sister Sylvia and
their parents, Hossam, 47, and Amal, 37, their throats sliced and bored.
Monica’s wrists were slit. Relatives said they had not seen other family
member’s wrists. They were shrouded. Ayman, Amal’s brother expressed
the conviction that brought a family in mourning to speak to national
media. Over 6 feet tall, he pulled himself taller, looking at the ceiling.
Tears welled in his eyes. Whoever said men don’t cry; never saw a man
who witnessed the bloody carnage of his sister and her children.
Rev. Dr. Keith Roderick,
Washington
representative of Christian Solidarity International, secretary General of
the Coalition for the Defense of Human Rights stood in front of media
gathered at the National Press Club’s headquarters by the US Copts
Association. Roderick said: “The fact that this press conference is
taking place in
Washington
,
DC
rather than in
Jersey City
points to the broader impact of this case.” US Copts headquarters are
three floors beneath the Press Club. Roderick said,
“Many non-Muslim immigrants have told me that they
believed that when they fled to the
United States
, they would be safe,” referring to “religious persecution and
violence by Jihadists in their native countries.” “This case is
unnerving. The delay in pursuing leads indicating a hate crime risks a
terrible miscarriage of justice.” Roderick said earlier, “To avoid
pursuit of what may be the most obvious motive of the murder for fear of
maligning one part of the
Jersey City
community or creating a backlash against that community is
irresponsible.”
Roderick’s NGO was one of several human rights
organizations Michael Meunien, president of the US Copts Association
invited to join with the bereaved Garas family addressing misconceptions
the press published.
The Jubilee Campaign presented their NGO’s letter
congratulating Alberto Gonzales on his confirmation as Attorney General in
the United States Department of Justice. Jubilee urged Gonzales to take
“a strong leadership role insisting the federal investigation into the
Armanious murders be carried out professionally and thoroughly and by
ensuring particulars of this case do not lead to policies or decisions on
the part of the Justice Department that will have a chilling effect on
religious expression in our
country.” The Jubilee
Campaign said “what may have been a hate crime stemming from a religious
dispute” is of concern to their coalition because Armanious’
“expression of his religious views in an Internet chatroom may have
contributed to his death and the deaths of his wife and daughters,”
hastening to note “investigating authorities have as of yet drawn no
conclusions” about the murders religious motivation, assuring if the
allegations prove true “our concerns are obvious.”
American Jewish Community legislative director and
counsel, Richard T. Foltin, provided reporters copies of his NGO’s
letter sent to Hudson County New Jersey’s Prosecutor, Edward J. De Fazio.
Acknowledging facts determining the horrific murders a hate crime “are
yet not known,” the AJC addressing the “heightened sense of fear in
the Coptic community,” asked ethnic, religious and community groups to
stand together and speak out against the intimidation inherent in such a
crime. One reporter, present, identified himself as a Muslim. CAIR, the
Council on American-Islamic Relations, despite having issued prior public
statements on the murder was not present at the press conference.
Michael Meunier founded the US Copts Association to
raise awareness to the Copts plight within
Egypt
, seeking to educate the Coptic community of their “human rights,
democracy and religious freedom” in the “Diaspora.” Meunier said a
new organization was needed because Copts, “frustrated with existing
Copts-Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant Coptic Advocacy Groups in the
United States
,” sought “an attractive alternative” to voice concerns reflecting
the changing needs of
America
’s Coptic Community in the world. The Association says Copts are the
largest Christian population in the
Middle East
. One hour earlier, Pat Robertson said, across the hall, Christians are
the fastest growing group in the world.
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